Magnesia Prefecture () was one of the

prefectures of Greece Until the Kallikratis reform in 2010, the prefectures () were the second-level administrative regions of Greece. They are now defunct, and have been approximately replaced by regional units. They are called departments in ISO 3166-2:GR and b ...

. Its capital was

Volos Volos (; ) is a coastal port city in Thessaly situated midway on the Greek mainland, about north of Athens and south of Thessaloniki. It is the capital of the Magnesia (regional unit), Magnesia regional unit of the Thessaly Region. Volos ...

. It was established in 1899 from the Larissa Prefecture. The prefecture was disbanded on 1 January 2011 by the

Kallikratis programme The Kallikratis Programme () is the common name of Greek law 3852/2010 of 2010, a major administrative reform in Greece. It brought about the second major reform of the country's administrative divisions following the 1997 Kapodistrias reform. ...

, and split into the regional units of Magnesia and the

Sporades The (Northern) Sporades are an archipelago along the east coast of Greece, northeast of the island of Euboea,"Skyros - Britannica Concise" (description), Britannica Concise, 2006, webpageEB-Skyrosnotes "including Skiathos, Skopelos, Skyros, and Al ...

. The toponym is ancient to the region. Ore that attracts iron is common in Magnesia, which is the origin of words such as ''

magnet A magnet is a material or object that produces a magnetic field. This magnetic field is invisible but is responsible for the most notable property of a magnet: a force that pulls on other ferromagnetic materials, such as iron, steel, nickel, ...

'' and ''

magnetism Magnetism is the class of physical attributes that occur through a magnetic field, which allows objects to attract or repel each other. Because both electric currents and magnetic moments of elementary particles give rise to a magnetic field, ...

''Online Etymology Dictionary, http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=magnet as well as the chemical elements ''

magnesium Magnesium is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Mg and atomic number 12. It is a shiny gray metal having a low density, low melting point and high chemical reactivity. Like the other alkaline earth metals (group 2 ...

'', derived from the mineral '' magnesia alba'', and ''

manganese Manganese is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Mn and atomic number 25. It is a hard, brittle, silvery metal, often found in minerals in combination with iron. Manganese was first isolated in the 1770s. It is a transition m ...

'', derived from the mineral '' magnesia nigra'' via Latin.

Sources

Prefectures of Greece Magnesia (regional unit) Sporades Geography of Thessaly 1899 establishments in Greece Magnesia Prefecture 2010 disestablishments in Greece States and territories disestablished in 2010 {{Thessaly-geo-stub